Wellington saw ’50 per cent fall’ in shoplifting over Christmas, say police

Wellington Town Council was told this week that incidents of the crime against businesses dropped by 50 per cent last December compared to the previous festive period in 2023.

West Mercia Police Sergeant Peter Rigby, of the Telford Safer Neighbourhood Team, based at Wellington Police Station, told town councillors at their first meeting of 2025 on Tuesday (January 14) that officers had adopted a high visibility approach.

They made arrests of offenders, had PCSOs on regular patrol and parked a police vehicle in the town centre to show locals that they mean business.

Sgt Rigby told councillors that the Christmas period “is normally a peak for officers” and it is a “difficult issue to deal with".

“We visited all premises to show our support for people reporting crime,” he said. “We had a rota of PCSOs patrolling and engaging, officers in plain clothes, and we parked a vehicle in the town centre.

“We had a 50 per cent reduction in shoplifting in all.”

The local sergeant also said that action was being taken against other individuals who are going through the court system.

Officers are also wanting to “ban” a group of 10 youths from the town centre, where they have been allegedly causing problems in the market, and are taking action against a beggar who they believe is a “professional” who visits different towns and cities to beg despite having a “stable income”.

The sergeant also revealed that a town centre business recently had been “raided for drugs”, one arrest was made and there is an “ongoing investigation” as a result.

Sgt Rigby, speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the meeting, said that the overall numbers were small. Shoplifting offences dropped from 20 to 10 incidents at the Wrekin Retail Park and from 10 to five in the town centre.

Sgt Rigby added that the force wanted to encourage people to report crime to them and admitted that he suspects there is a degree of “under-reporting” of crimes.